Company targeting scam victims all over again shut down
28 Jan 2013 02:59 PM
Rest Assured Property Services Limited, a company which targeted victims of a previous holiday club scam, has been closed down by the High Court following an investigation by the Insolvency Service.
The investigation found that Rest Assured cold-called members of the ‘Club Class’ holiday club and offered to sell their memberships to interested buyers, in exchange for an up-front fee of £749.
After the victims paid this initial fee, they received contract papers and then received further telephone calls demanding that they make additional payments of between £960 - £1,460 to enable the sale to progress.
Rest Assured used this method to take £226,000 from its victims but did not sell on a single holiday club membership on their behalf.
The Court heard how the company passed on the money to several individuals, some of whom had no known connection to the company. These people spent the money on flights, hotel bills and designer shopping, including Fred Perry and Jimmy Choo.
In addition Rest Assured failed to pay VAT, despite its turnover appearing to have breached the VAT threshold.
All the known victims of Rest Assured were also all members of the Club Class holiday group, seven connected companies which were wound up in the public interest by the High Court in London on 3 October 2012, following a investigation by Company Investigations of the Insolvency Service.
That investigation found that companies in the Club Class group had targeted consumers whom had been mis-sold timeshares, and used high pressure techniques to convince those consumers to relinquish their timeshares in part-payment for membership of the Club Class holiday club. However, customers found that relinquishing their timeshares to Club Class did not release them from their timeshare charges and they were unable to claim cash back incentives which had been held out to them by Club Class.
Commenting on the case, David Hill, an Investigation Supervisor with The Insolvency Service said:
“This company cynically targeted people who had been victims of a previous scam, using slick patter and preying on their desperation to rid themselves of the worthless products they had already been mis-sold.
“Putting a stop to these companies protects the public from being ripped off and defends legitimate, decent businesses from being undercut by those not playing by the rules.
“The Insolvency Service is determined to take tough action to remove rogue companies from the business environment.”
Notes to Editors
1. Rest Assured Property Services Ltd (Rest Assured) was incorporated on 25 November 2010 (company number 07451810). Rest Assured’s registered office address was at Central House, Brighton Road, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 6AA.
2. The petition to wind up the company was presented in the High Court on 20 August 2012 under the provisions of section 124A of the Insolvency Act 1986 following confidential enquiries by Company Investigations under section 447 of the Companies Act 1985, as amended. The order to wind up the company was given on 16 January 2013 by the High Court.
3. Company Investigations, part of The Insolvency Service, carries out confidential enquiries on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS).
4. The Insolvency Service administers the insolvency regime investigating all compulsory liquidations and individual insolvencies (bankruptcies) through the Official Receiver to establish why they became insolvent. The Service also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession; deals with disqualification of directors in corporate failures; assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees; provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds; and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.
5. All public enquiries concerning the affairs of the company should be made to: The Official Receiver, Public Interest Unit, 4 Abbey Orchard Street, London, SW1P 2HT. Telephone: 0207 637 1110 Email: piu.or@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk
6. Further information about the work of The Insolvency Service is available from http://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency.
7. You can now subscribe to get e-mail alerts from The Insolvency Service. To subscribe, go to our website http://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency/news and you will see a button to “sign up for email alerts and newsletters” or click on the link below and follow the instructions:
https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKBIS/subscriber/new